Some of you might be aware from the “About Me” page that once upon a time I was a vegetarian. Actually I was one for 7 years until the stress of grad school got to be too much and I decided I needed to have a cheeseburger one night. That was it, I was hooked on meat again. Unfortunately I fell back into old bad habits and the only meat I would eat was the kind that was bad for me (ie fast food or take out stuff!).

After 2-3 years of eating basically crap when it came to meat I went from 135lbs to a little over 160lbs! OUCH. This summer I had it and decided to get back into shape. So What have I been doing? A little bit of everything . . . .

Count Calories! I started off aiming for 1500 a day, but as I lost weight I was allowed to gradually increase this. Now I’m between 1700 and 1900 a day. If I go over one day I try and stay on track or go under another day. NEVER sink below 1400 a day, that is the minimum a person usually needs before going into starvation mode and storing fat!

Eat Every Three Hours! I incorporated the “Three Hour Diet” idea into my plan. I don’t really eat large meals, and eating three meals and small snacks wasn’t cutting it for me. I now try and have about 4 small meals a day and snacks in between when needed. Again, trying to keep within my calorie limit. The idea of the three hour diet is to keep your metabolism going and not to let your body go into starvation mode.

No Soda! This probably has had the biggest impact on my weight so far. I used to love soda, it was the only thing I drank. I had to give it up, yes even the diet stuff which is what I was drinking. Soda, even 0 calorie 0 carb 0 sugar sodas make you retain weight and water. I’m only allowed soda if I go out to eat now.

No Fast Food! No Eating Out! I limit my fast food/eating out. I try as much as I can to stay away from the fast food, and have been good about that. I’m allowed to eat out once a week if I’ve had a good week. However this means eating out at a restaurant, not McDonalds!

Exercise! I try to exercise 5 days a week. This is a combination of cardio machines and weight machines at the gym. I alternate a day of weight training with cardio. If I can’t get to the gym I do Dance Dance Revolution at home (this is a videogame for those who don’t know).

I guess that is about it. I was doing really really well, until this past week when I ate out one too many days because of my birthday. Now I’m trying to get back on track. My overall goal is to be in really really good shape for my next vacation/cruise, which is in January.

Dustin